Excursion – Krapina and Trakoscan castle

About excursion

Trakošćan castle is the most attractive castle in Croatia. It is located in Zagorje, 23 km north – east of Krapina. With 40 000 tourists every year it is the most visited castle in Croatia.

TRAKOŠĆAN CASTLE

Trakošćan castle is the most attractive castle in Croatia. It is located in Zagorje, 23 km north – east of Krapina. With 40000 tourists every year it is the most visited castle in Croatia.
It was built in 13th century as a small fortress which was a part of Zagorje principality. There are very few facts and information about the beginning of its construction. Since 1953 there has been a permanent exhibition of reconstructed ambience of the Drašković family in the castle, it involves a lot of original baroque furniture and small objects as well, so you can feel as if it hasn’t been long since the owners left the castle. Now the castle is owned by the Republic of Croatia.http://www.trakoscan.hr/

KRAPINA

Nowdays Krapina is the cultural, political and administrative centre of Krapina-Zagorje County. It is located next to the little river Krapinčica, after which the city got its name.
Krapina has been known since 1193, when it was first mentioned in written documents. It has always been a favorite site for castles and country houses of Croatian and Hungarian rulers, which left a trace in today’s architecture of Krapina. You can still feel the spirit of past all over the town. In 1899 Dragutin Gorjanović-Kramberger, an archaeologist and paleontologist found over eight hundred fossil remains belonging to Neanderthals on the hill called Hušnjakovo, near modern Krapina. Since than the site has been protected as the first paleontological natural monument in the Republic of Croatia, and has been listed as one of the richest Palaeolithic habitats of Neanderthals in Croatia and Europe.

KRAPINA NEANDERTHAL MUSEUM

This site is one of the most famous and important discoveries of prehistoric people in Europe, and due to that at the end of 19th century the Hušnjakovo hill (Krapina) was listed on the world map of paleontological natural monuments. The museum opened its doors in 2010 and in an interesting way it represents a mysterious way of human evolution. The exhibition is a kind of the time machine which takes us back to the beginning of cosmic evolution and leads us to modern times. The biggest attraction is a hyper realistic reconstruction of a stone age habitat, a work by Elisabeth Daynes, a sculptor. The museum was nominated for European museum award of the year in 2012.http://www.mkn.mhz.hr/

Itinerary:

09:00 – departure from Zagreb

09:00 – 10:30 – journey to Trakošćan castle

10:30 – 13:00 – a castle tour with a local guide and free time after that

13:00 – 13:30 – journey to Krapina

13:30 – 15:00 – visiting the Krapina Neanderthal Museum (audio-guide)

15:00 – 16:00 – journey back to Zagreb

duration: approx. 7 hours

Price: 90 EUR

Price includes: bus transport from Zagreb to Krapina and back, entrance fee to the Trakošćan castle, the castle tour with a local guide, entrance fee for Krapina Neanderthal Museum, audio guide in Krapina Neanderthal Museum, a travel guide.